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‘Bring your vomit bucket’, ‘wear your safety goggles’ and ‘call in the CSI crew’ were some of the listing descriptions which launched Rob Caruso into international headlines this month.
“It makes you want to scream every time you see ‘nest or invest’ or ‘renovated delight’," Mr Caruso, of Perth Property Solutions, told Real Estate Business. "I really think real estate agents need to lift their game a bit so the ads aren’t so boring."
After winning numerous awards during his four years with Raine & Horne, Mr Caruso moved to Perth Property Solutions where clients come to him for his engaging copywriting skills.
“I love the whole marketing scene. If I wasn’t in real estate I’d be in marketing," he said. “Boring ads drive me insane. So I try to make all of my adverts awesome, not just the one that’s been reported by the media.”
Mr Caruso claims to get hundreds of inquiries on properties that would usually receive very few, simply by putting some thought into the copy.
In one listing, the ‘current worst house in Australia’ has been advertised as a cockroach-infested dump.
“Give these iron clad armour suits the big finger when you drop the A-bomb on their residence… Drive these nasty little vermin out of town when you squash and squelch the squatters into oblivion with your new bulldozer!” the listing ad reads.
Mr Caruso even wrote a poem to sell another property.
“This particular property was on Tennyson Street, so it seemed fitting that since all the streets in the suburb were named after poets, I should give it my best shot," he said. “So we wrote this poem, and we had a huge reception. One guy even wrote a poem back to express his interest!”
And for anyone doubting the impact comedic copy can have, Mr Caruso claims he sold another house described as an ‘A-grade dump’ in just 11 hours, a sale that garnered the attention of the British media.
He also used his copywriting prowess to sell eight rural properties that had otherwise languished on the market for 18 months.
“A developer came to me with a bunch of rural properties that he had on the market for a year and a half. I made a series of funny ads, put ‘cheap’ in the description and sold them all within two weeks," he said.
“The buyers love it. I challenge anyone to spend two hours on realestate.com.au and come back with a smile on their face. If people read them and have a chuckle, it becomes memorable and doesn’t become such a mundane and tedious experience.”
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